I don't think im a P90 person

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romanianreaper
romanianreaper
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I played a guitar with P90s on Friday and today and didn't dig either. I mean they were noisy, as expected but was missing something I like about pickups. With that said, I'm talking just heavier stuff. Cleans were great and low gain. I think im just a heavier tone person.
 
romanianreaper said:
I played a guitar with P90s on Friday and today and didn't dig either. I mean they were noisy, as expected but was missing something I like about pickups. With that said, I'm talking just heavier stuff. Cleans were great and low gain. I think im just a heavier tone person.
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I ordered an overwound humbucker size P-90 from Biltoft for an LP neck position. I hope I don't have this same problem. Had a standard set before and I don't recall hating them but I was playing a different amp at the time too. DC resistance is hotter than any of the PAF humbuckers I've used in the neck before so hopefully it will work out.
 
I like P90s but for me it's sort of a specialty pickup, not something I could use all the time.
Certainly not ideal for heavy stuff - although Tony Iommi did pretty well with them back in the day.
There is something cool about a Les Paul Special or a P90 equipped Standard though.
For cleans, for crunch and for blues they're great. Very dynamic as mentioned.
And with a singlecoil's quick attack, they have bite as well as their distinctive bark.

I do love P90 neck tone, but the noise factor alone is enough to make me steer clear of 'em for most guitars.
Have a pair of Kent Armstrong's noiseless Stealth90s in a Hagstrom - they're pretty good but a little more polite than the real thing.
 
I’ve got vintage P90’s (some as low as 5k) that I use even for modern metal. They can get as heavy as anything else if used right. They’re not tight pickups, but if the rest of the setup is tight shouldn’t be an issue and are capable of sounding more raw than humbuckers and the right ones have vicious growl like nothing else. I haven’t admittedly played any good recent made p90’s though. Too sterile
 
I freaking love P90’s. The stock Jr below gets picked up 9 times out of 10. I tried some BKP and Lollar P90’s thinking it could get better……but the Gibsons are the ticket. I can play everything short of modern metal with this thing. Love the fast attack and raunchy mids of the P90.

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You have to get a good set. I have had two guitars ‘55 LP Special and a ‘67 SG Special. Both had / have the original pickups and are big fat thick and quiet. There may be some newer ones that are good, but I don’t have any experience with them.
 
I had PRS SE soapbar ll. Threw a Bareknuckle Pig90 pickup in the bridge and it fucking crushed with high gain tone. I regret selling it.
 
P-90s can do the heavies with a Diezel. Something about that German gain and low to mid output pickups.



 
Once I got a P90 all bets were off!
Great tones gained up and rolling volume back, it cleans up so nicely.
I get very little noise out of my Gibson branded P90.
Fucker rips!
 

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Just remembered, saw a band Saturday night. Dude had a gold Gibson LP Jr, single P90 pickup, through a Rocker 15 and 1x12 cab.
They played a lil bit of everything and he sounded really good. Great tone. I was surprised, tbh.
 
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I like them, but I wouldn't use them as my main tone.

To me, though, a "traditional" standard P90 is like 85% PAF tone mixed with about 15% hot Tele-ish tone. And even though PAF's can be cool for metal, they're certainly not a "traditional" Metal sound anymore from like the 80's and on. And Tele... well, people get them to work, but they get you a very niche Metal sound in themselves.

I bet that if people explored, say, like a 16K overwound P90 with dual oversized Ceramic magnets and hex polepieces, it would KILL, but at the same time, that would only sell on a very niche market.

I have a Duncan Quarter Pound in my Esquire, and it sounds surprisingly heavy, and it can do a pretty passable impersonation of a Metal humbucker when set right. Would it be my first choice if I wanted to record a whole album? Probably not, but it's fun to mess around with different tones from time to time.

And about the noise... I would get a noise gate if you wanted to comit to P90's and single coils. The Decimator, the Sentry, and the HX's noise gates handle the noise from the Quarter Pound no problem, and I don't have to set it any differently than I do with my usual humbuckers, even.
 
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